Mapping Estuarine Environments

NOAA HAS A NEW ESTUARY INFORMATION SYSTEM AVAILABLE ON LINE

American Admiralty Books Safety & Privacy Policies   EU VISITORS WARNING POSSIBLE COOKIES AHEAD

 Photo: NOAA 

 Where fresh water from river systems meet the ocean or an arm of the sea we find estuaries. Estuaries such as much of Chesapeake Bay, Mississippi Sound or Mobile Bay are tremendously productive environments sometimes called "the cradles of the sea". It is in these brackish shallow waters and flooded aquatic and emergent grass beds that most major sport and commercial saltwater fish spend the a major portion of the juvenile segment of their life spans. Sick estuaries make for sick oceans. No doubt most of our existing estuaries around the world ar sick to to some degree. But are they getting better or worse? What does optimum look like? To know that we need historic as well as current data.  Only when we have a viable understanding of the present and past of an estuary's environmental conditions can the regulators make informed decisions related to harvesting from, yet protecting and preserving these critical habitats. 

 There are approximately two thousand recognized estuaries in the United States spread across five identifiable estuary regions; Atlantic coast, Gulf of Mexico Coast, Pacific Coast, Alaska, and Hawaii. The protection, preservation, and management of the estuaries in these regions are accomplished by a mix of federal and state agencies. The estuaries themselves are studies by a variety of agencies, academic organizations and trade groups. There is a lot of data and its very spread out.  the EPA's Estuary Data Mapper Changes all that. The application allows the researcher to zoom in on a specific estuary and find lots of collated available data from multiple sources. In some cases the system may actually have all available data on a particular system through the date of inquiry, but always lots of data from as many known data sources as are known to the EPA, and that's most such sources. 

 The Estuary Data Mapper application of the EPA was designed as a one -stop-source to aid the work of environmental scientists, environmental managers, non government conservation and environmental organizations, and citizen groups concerned with issues affecting estuaries. 

 Estuary Data Mapper also includes background information on the systems feeding water into the estuary, coastal rivers, tributaries, even watersheds and background geographic data like nearby towns and roads. There is now an Estuary Data Mapper with expanded data sources on such things as atmospheric deposition, nonpoint and point nitrogen sources and where known nitrogen loads. You can read more about the system at the EPA's blog : http://blog.epa.gov/science/2015/01/mapping-estuarine-environments/?hootPostID=b255d5e6c8348bbeb1cb0e5105b90550

 The highlighted links in the text above take you the system itself.

   THE ESTUARY BOOKSHELF    

Saudi Arabia Becoming Increasingly Vulnerable To ISIS

ISIS HAS NOW MADE A DIRECT ATTACK ON SAUDI BORDER FORCES

map: GNU Free Documentation License, http://commons.w ikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saudi_Arabia_map.png

We link you to the full story @ MSN NEWS

"For the first time since the Islamic State group formally announced its desire to conquer the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last month, government officials claimed that “terrorist elements” launched an attack on the Saudi border with Iraq. Four militants, one wearing a suicide vest, attacked a border fortification on Monday, killing three Saudi border guards."

 FULL STORY FROM MSN NEWS:

BP'S UNENDING, UNLIMITED LIABILITY

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT WILL NOT STOP BRITISH 

PETROLEUM'S GULF LIABILITY NIGHTMARE 

Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Cory J. Mendenhall, U.S. Coast Guard

   The U.S. Supreme Court just made it unmistakably clear,  British Petroleum is inescapably in a dangerously vulnerable position in the seemingly never ending Gulf of Mexico spill-liability suits. The Supremes turned down BP’s plea for an intervention in the multibillion-dollar litigation circus stemming from the April 2010 disaster that killed 11 offshore rig workers and spewed millions of gallons of crude Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana. The Supreme Court’s unwillingness to wade into the spill litigation means that the present open-ended settlement of one portion of BP’s liability will now cost billions of dollars more than the original $7.8 billion estimate. The Court's refusal to hear BP's petition came, as is the court's practice, without an explanation. The non decision will have very broad implications. BP's appeal to the Supreme Court appears to be an unusual frontal attack on the federal trial judge hearing other aspects of the complex spill litigation. Now that Justice Carl Barbier of New Orleans, no longer has to worry about the Supreme Court second-guessing his supervision of the BP case, it is more probable than not that  the Brits will pay a penalty for having repeatedly challenged the integrity of the settlement process. 

  Plaintiffs’ attorneys Stephen Herman and James Roy issued a statement  that the high court’s rebuff “should finally put to rest BP’s two-year attack on its own settlement.” Shortly after its well explosion and resulting  offshore oil spill calamity  BP moved to minimize lawsuits and provide funds for cleanup and damage claims. In 2010, the Brits established an initial $20 billion fund for these purposes and began trying to negotiate settlements of various government and private suits. So far, British Petroleum maintains that it has written checks for more than $28 billion. Hoping  to avoid a trial on one category of potentially extensive business and economic claims, BP agreed in 2012 to a settlement whose cost it estimated at $7.8 billion. That agreement with various plaintiffs had no overall cap and relied on a highly flexible formula for determining which claimants qualified for payment. BP unwisely accused both the plaintiffs’ lawyers and the settlement administrator appointed by Justice Barbier of abusing the pact. BP identified what it called exaggerated and some “fictitious” claims totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Justice Barbier generally rejected BP’s objections and asserted that he took offense at the company’s suggestions that it was being victimized by down home New Orleans justice. This was the allegation that the Supreme Court  declined to review. BP miscalculated that it could draw the Supremes into the case at this stage. As one report indicated; "the interpretation of the business-claims settlement boiled down to a one-time-only contract dispute complicated by highly idiosyncratic facts - not the sort of broad-reaching constitutional or statutory clash the high court normally seeks to resolve." 

 By challenging Justice Barbier’s oversight of the settlement process, the Brits may actually have drawn additional attention to the pact’s extremely loose and ill defined terms. BP now estimates that its liability under the business-claims settlement will exceed $9.7 billion, and plaintiffs’ attorneys encouraged by the Supreme Court's lack of action, are lining up to take a shot and predicting the figure will be much higher. "Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Brandon Barnes agrees. He estimates that the settlement ultimately may cost the company an enormous $20 billion". However, that’s not the final bill.  BP faces a continuing suit filed by the federal government under the Clean Water Act for clean up costs and environmental damages. That separate and distinct  liability could reach $18 billion - and the sole decision maker will be , you guessed it, the long suffering Judge Barbier. In short , the very judge the Brits attempted to take to the Supreme Court wood shed will now have it within his power to sock it to BP. This separate  verdict will turn on highly particular factual determinations unlikely to draw the attention of the Supreme Court. Officially the PR position of BP’s is that they  “remain concerned” that it is being asked to pay claims unrelated to the 2010 spill. The Brits know They have more checks to write. Already the Brits have taken a pretax charge of $43 billion to cover hopefully all of its spill liability. With the recent Supreme Court (non)action,  that amount increasingly looks inadequate. All this because they wanted to save a few hundred thousand on drilling costs. 


                                    
                                                                 BP OIL SPILL BOOK SHELF

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WILL WE SEE A SECOND SIEGE OF INDIA?

Islamic India: The biggest holocaust in World History… whitewashed from history books

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Image from The Linked Text: http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2014/12/31/islamic-india-the-biggest-holocaust-in-world-history-whitewashed-from-history-books/

 In this Blog we have written often about the Indian Navy that we very much admire and believe is so absolutely necessary to India and the larger world. We have noted that India has long feared a two pronged "Siege of India" by Islamic and Chinese and / or Chinese Islamic proxy forces. We have even mentioned that India suffered such a siege earlier in her history. The Islamic imposed holocausts, centuries long, against the Hindu people of India is not well known. Not fully known among many people in India. Here is a link to a competent telling of that story: THE FIRST SIEGE OF INDIA: 

NEWS FLASH: ITALIAN COAST GUARD MIGRANT INTERDICTION OPERATION

"Hijacked" Ship Taken to Italy

 Italian Coast Guard Responded To Call About Armed Migrant Passengers But Boarded Without Incident And Discovered No Armed Passengers:

"A cargo ship carrying nearly 1,000 migrants near the Greek island of Corfu has been escorted to Gallipoli by the Italian coastguard.

Yesterday, Greek officials reportedly received a distress signal from the Moldovan-flagged Blue Sky M cargo ship. There were also reports that armed migrants were aboard the ship, raising fears that the ship had been hijacked.

This morning, a spokesperson for the Italian coastguard confirmed to IHS Maritime that coastguard personnel had approached the ship by helicopter and boarded the ship. On board, they counted 970 migrants, but none were armed. The spokesperson said the nationality of the migrants and the port of their embarkation are not known" COMPLETE  STORY by Complete Story by Girija Shettar

USGS DATA ON STREAMS AND RIVERS

American Admiralty Books Safety & Privacy Policies   EU VISITORS WARNING POSSIBLE COOKIES AHEAD

http://m.waterdata.usgs.gov/

Get Water Temperature, Stream Velocity, Discharge, Gauge Height, Specific Conductance, Salinity, and other data from numerous monitoring stations operated by the U.S. Geological Survey around the nation. You can pull it up on your laptop, tablet, or I phone. The data site can read your position from your computer and pulls up a regional map for you showing its closest reporting stations. http://m.waterdata.usgs.gov/

ON LINE FISHING EQUIPMENT SHOP

         

INSURING COLD WATER VOYAGING

 Photo: NOAA

COLD WATER VOYAGING HAS INHERENT DANGERS:

  Many commercial maritime organizations have bought into the global warming concept despite contraindicative facts and are investing in planned future High Arctic Operations. While we are highly skeptical of future growth in through transit cargo operations in the High Arctic we believe that destination cargo, cargo bound for actual Arctic destinations will increase over time and in fact is increasing now. There are special risks associated with cold region navigation and increasingly the marine insurance industry is having to ascertain and consider insuring against these inherent risks. Affordability of insurance is always a factor in the growth of a trade route. At this stage of development the balance between risk and reward for insuring against the inherent risks of ice region navigation is still evolving. Some insurance companies are underwriting some risks based on information that they would like to see improved. One of the IMO's 2014 initiatives has been the "Polar Code" a set of minimum safety standards for vessels operating in Arctic and Antarctic waters. It is thought that by 2016 it will be impossible to insure a vessel that is not Polar Code compliant for Ice region voyaging. Many standard marine policies today preclude travel above 72 n. 

 Most ship owners need special riders on policies for travel north of 72 n, and many insurance companies are reluctant to underwrite such voyages. The "Polar Code" is expected to change that. Most insurers don't believe that properly equipped ice capable ships will incur significantly more losses in terms of accident than those transiting more temperate sea routes. But insurers fear that costs of salvage and environmental clean up in the High Arctic will be astronomical. The remoteness, lack of existing salvage resources, and difficult weather all indicate that the insurers are right to worry about the these enhanced costs. The evolution of the High Arctic Shipping routes requires more than just increased ice free weeks if they are to become competitive with the various toll canals as "paths between the seas".  It is going to take quite a while for insurers to feel comfortable in these waters. More over, trend is so often not future. The climatic indicators for the last 18 years have not been as convincing of Global warming as those who have invested on that premise would like us to believe. The climatic indicators for the past 36 months and looking into the next 24 months are not conducive to trust in ever lengthening ice free seasons.   We have long advised our commercial readers to not invest heavily in plans that rely on increased High Arctic through traffic. You can't rely on the long term climatological conditions or the business conditions at present.  Logistical support to increasing numbers of High Arctic out posts will increase. These are specialty operations carrying "destination' cargoes". Before buying into schemes that purport to be based on increasing High Arctic cargo statistics, check carefully to insure that what you are looking at isn't inflated by cargoes that are delivered to the Arctic, vice through an arctic shipping route. As always we advise that if you are responsible for spending other peoples money that you avoid the Al Gore Cool Aid.

                    ICE NAVIGATION BOOK SHELF
At the "Ice Navigation Book Shelf" You May Find Titles On Technical Ice Navigation And Also Epic Stories Of Arctic And Antarctic Navigation Both Ancient And Modern, Including Voyages Under Sail And Under The Ice By Submarines.